The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Strawberry plant, botanically known as Fragaria×ananassa and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Opera’.
The new Strawberry plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Elst, Gelderland, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program was to develop new early-ripening Strawberry plants with good fruit quality, ease of harvesting, good postharvest longevity and resistance to pathogens.
The new Strawberry plant originated from a cross-pollination by the Inventor during the spring of 2004 in Elst, Gelderland, The Netherlands of a proprietary selection of Fragaria×ananassa identified as code name E1998-142, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unnamed seedling selection of Fragaria×ananassa, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Strawberry plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Elst, Gelderland, The Netherlands during the summer of 2006.
Asexual reproduction of the new Strawberry plant by runner cuttings in a controlled environment at Elst, Gelderland, The Netherlands since the autumn of 2006, has shown that the unique features of this new Strawberry plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.